git_intro.Rmd

---
title: "Intro to Git"
author: "Chaya Jones"
date: "June 2018"
output:
  ioslides_presentation: default
---

```{r setup, include=FALSE}
knitr::opts_chunk$set(echo = FALSE)
```

## What is Git REALLY and why should you care?

- Version control (but you could just use Dropbox)
- Annotated history of your project and changes along the way
- Collaboration tool
- Experimental lab space

## Git != GitHub

Git is a version control system that lives on your computer

GitHub is a cloud-based hosting service that stores a copy of your work

There are other services that you can use to host your Git repositories:

   - Bitbucket
   - GitLab
  
And there's another common version control system out there too: Subversion (aka SVN)

... but we're here for Git (and GitHub)

## Some Git vocab

- Repository / repo: a folder with your files in it, probably a contained project
- Commit: much like a multi-file save - this is a snapshot of the current state of your repo
- Push: _sending_ commits to a repo
- Pull: _getting_ commits from a repo
- Merge: combining changes
- Fork: make a copy of a repo
- Clone: make a copy of a repo

Wait, what?

A fork is a clone and a clone is a fork, at least in GitHub - this gets more complicated semantically in the open source community, but for now we're sticking with that.

## Installing Git & getting R to talk to it

Jenny Bryan's instructions for this are essentially bulletproof, so I very much recommend starting there:

http://happygitwithr.com/workshops.html#pre-workshop-set-up 

1. Get a GitHub account
2. Make sure you have the latest R/RStudio
3. Install Git on your computer
4. Make sure your computer's Git can talk to GitHub
5. Make sure RStudio can find Git 

## Git workflow

- Create a repository on GitHub (in your organization if that's how you're rolling)
- Fork that repository to your personal account
- Copy the URL for the repository
- Make a new project in RStudio, using version control, and paste the repo URL
- Do your work in your personal repository
- Commit early and often! Write yourself notes! 
- Send your commits to your personal repository with a push
- Merge your repository with the organization's repository by sending a pull request

## My setup:

[live! GitHub! demo!]

## Burning it all down
![](xkcd_git.png)

## Resources

http://www.happygitwithr.com 

https://speakerdeck.com/alicebartlett/git-for-humans

https://support.rstudio.com/hc/en-us/articles/200532077-Version-Control-with-Git-and-SVN 

Git clients that some people love:

- SourceTree: https://www.sourcetreeapp.com/ 
- GitKraken: https://www.gitkraken.com/